


Divergence

by eutrash (AreteNike)



Series: Abandoned WIPs [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Time Travel Fix-It, but instead its this, future!keith was gonna come back and betray them honestly it was Wild, i literally dont remember what was gonna be shiros deal lmao, i mean it doesnt take anything from s3 on into account at least, obviously there is implied major character death but the whole point is they undo that, post s2 i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 11:10:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15118124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eutrash
Summary: After Shiro went missing, everything went downhill. Lance died. Pidge died. Coran, Slav, Matt, the Blade of Marmora, they all died. Keith was supposed to be back weeks ago. Only Hunk and Allura are left.And their only option is to go back, and try again.(Please note this is part of my abandoned WIPs series! Everything in this series is unfinished and most likely always will be. There will be unresolved cliffhangers. You have been warned.)





	Divergence

**Author's Note:**

> oh god, this one. this one i abandoned shortly after s3 dropped and i decided i didnt want to replot the whole damn thing again (and didnt want to rewrite all of s1 anyway). its sort of an in-universe fix-it fic, after all...
> 
> in retrospect, a lot of it is pretty ooc (its one of the first vld fics i started, though it went through a LOT of iterations before it got even to this point). i still love the idea tho. sort of reused it in a zine piece at some point...
> 
> anyway it ends right in the middle of a scene so, sorry about that :')

Hunk always hated playing dodgeball. Not because he was bad at it--though he was--but because he always ended up the last one standing, and therefore the only target for the entire other team. It was due to a tendency to hang unnoticed in the back, he knew, but that didn't change the sickening, empty feeling of looking around and realizing there's no one left but him, and there's no way he can win. Only wait for the inevitable.

This, Hunk decides, is a lot like that, only, like, a billion times worse.

"We need to hold out a little longer," says Allura. "Keith could still--"

"Keith is  _ dead, _ Allura," he says. He hates the way the words feel in his mouth, chafing his throat raw. He's had to say this so many times, for so many friends. "We haven't heard from him in weeks. He's not coming back."

Allura doesn't want to accept that. He can see it in the thin press of her lips, the way her fingers tighten on the ship's controls. He's had a long time to learn her cues.

He doesn't want to accept it either, but Hunk is nothing if not practical, so he sets his shoulders and watches her eyes until she looks back at him.

"It's over," he says, quiet, but not as gentle as he wishes he could be. He lost his gentleness around the same time they lost Lance. "There's nothing else we can do, Princess."

Her face goes slack, distant. He reaches for her hesitantly--god, if this is it, if she's finally broken under the strain, then he's alone for good. But her eyes refocus on him before he touches her.

"There is... one more thing," she says slowly.

* * *

The AI room is as cold as ever when Allura leads him there. Slav is long dead (like everyone else, Hunk's brain supplies helpfully, thanks brain) but his mind has been guarded here as carefully as Voltron was. Better, possibly, since all but the Yellow and Red lions have fallen into Galran hands.

He can't help but feel a little nostalgic when the alien's familiar (holographic) form flickers into view. He doesn't come down here often, since talking to Slav tends to be kind of a hassle, but it's a tiny comfort all the same.

"Slav," Allura says, before the hologram can speak. "What do you know of the Mobius Rite?"

"Ah! An ancient legend!" the Slav-hologram exclaims. "One of the earliest recorded attempts at time travel in this reality! And several others..."

Hunk kind of tunes out the rest. He stopped listening after "time travel," really. Because if they can  _ time travel, _ they can--they can change everything. Go back and save Pidge and Lance and Matt before they died, go back and save Keith, go back and... well, they're still not sure what happened to Shiro, but if they can time travel they have the time (ha) to figure it out, and save him too. Go back and keep the lions from being taken, too. Then they'd come back to the future and everyone would still be here, and maybe they'd have won already.

They could go home. Maybe even Allura could. Maybe they could go back ten-thousand-and-then-some years and prevent all of this from ever happening...

"Hunk," Allura says, and he starts. The way she's looking at him, it's clear she already knows he wasn't listening. Woops.

"Yes?" he says.

"Slav, please repeat your explanation. Concisely." She turns back to the hologram.

"Y-yes, Princess. The Mobius Rite is a highly theoretical--"

Allura sighs. "Just say what it does."

"Right. It can send your consciousness--but not your body!--back up to five Earth years in time. However! You will not be able to affect anything, or even be seen, until you merge with your previous self!" Slav holds up four tiny hands, then brings them together to clasp into two pairs. "Or you could take over someone else's body, I suppose," he adds in a mutter, "but that will cause your demise in at least three hundred and seventy-four realities, assuming that you can perform the Rite at all."

"We'll do it," Allura says firmly. "We have to. Thank you, Slav."

"The probability of success--"

" _ Thank you, _ Slav." Allura turns to go, so Hunk follows, and the AI flickers off.

"Uh, so," Hunk begins as they make their way back to the bridge. "How are we going to pull this off, exactly?"

"It's similar to wormholing, in principle," she says. "I'll need to tap into the remaining lions' quintessence as an anchor."

Hunk nods. Not that he fully understands what she's about to do, but he understands enough. "What do you need me to do?"

"There should be some schematics in our records. We'll need to make a jump to get as far away from the empire as possible, and then you can start taking the lenses out of the teludav. You'll need them."

It's not a full plan, but it's a start. Hunk can work with that.

* * *

Not for the first time, Hunk wonders how the lions' systems knew to translate whatever the Altean name for the Rite is as "Mobius." The device he's built--mostly from scrap taken from nonessential systems in the castle-ship itself--is, sort of, a mobius strip. Like the teludav they used against Zarkon, but much much smaller, about the size of a hula-hoop, and twisted around a few times.

He's a little nervous about stepping through something that's literally designed to rip the quintessence from his body and fling it backwards through time, but hey, he's gonna die here anyway. Haha. Ha.

"Has it been calibrated?" Allura asks, peering over his shoulder.

"Yeah." He swallows. "Three times."

She leans against the shoulder she's been looking over, placing a gentle hand on the opposite shoulder, too. "We can do this, Hunk," she says softly. "We'll go back, and we'll save everyone."

"Yeah." He pauses. "Nothing left to lose if it doesn't work, anyway, right?"

"It  _ will _ work." She says it with such confidence that he almost believes it. She's probably faking it for his sake, but it helps.

He takes a deep breath. "...Are you ready?" he asks. She straightens up and goes to stand on the opposite side of the hoop.

"Yes," she says. "Do you remember the plan?"

"I step through first, you follow, we both merge with our past selves as soon as we get the chance. Coran's allowed to know, but no one else unless absolutely necessary, because humans scare easily. I got it."

She nods, and gives him a small smile. He hasn't seen that in a while.

"Let's begin," she says, and closes her eyes. For a moment, nothing happens; then the hoop shudders a bit, and glows, and it slowly lifts off the floor. It hovers at about knee height before Allura kneels down, reaches out--still with eyes closed--and grasps it. A glowing circle of light, almost painfully bright, appears within.

"Go, Hunk," she says urgently, an odd sort of doubled rasp to her voice.

"G-going," says Hunk, and steps into the light.

* * *

The bridge is... oddly bright. It's a different sort of light than the mini-teludav-thing was giving off, too, and he blinks more in surprise than from the brightness. Did it not work? He looks around. Allura and the device are nowhere to be seen, and all the controls and seats and everything are dark. Huh.

He looks up. Sky.  _ Sunlight. _ They're on a planet, when did they get here? Unless...

He rushes over to the window. It's Arus, the ship is still on Arus--and dark, meaning Allura isn't out of cryo yet--meaning  _ it worked. _ He's actually gone back in time. And there's the blue lion flying in now.

Oh god, his past self is in there, this is  _ happening. _

He heads back across the bridge--noticing, this time, that his feet make no sound, and he looks down and  _ that's _ a mistake because he can't see his own feet--and is stymied momentarily by the door until he realizes he can walk through it. This would be a super cool trick to mess with people if he didn't kind of urgently need to get back to his body.

He makes his way down to cryo in almost total darkness, which is fine because he could get there in his sleep. He figures Allura is probably on her way down too, not that he can see or hear her, either. 

"Oh, I hope this works," he mutters anxiously, except no actual sound happens. Of course.

He has a few minutes to sort of drift anxiously around cryo before the lights start coming on. Ohh, it's happening, he's gonna see himself and it's gonna be super weird. This is a literal out-of-body experience. Except there's like, two of him? Won't he have too much quintessence then? What's gonna happen to the excess? Ohh--

Fortunately, voices soon interrupt him from worrying about the health consequences of this merging thing, at which point he realizes he's got himself so worked up over seeing himself that he hasn’t braced for seeing everyone else. And then  _ Pidge _ walks in, followed by  _ Shiro, _ and  _ Keith, _ and  _ Lance, _ and they're  _ alive. _

All of them, together, alive. When was the last time this happened? It has to have been at least a year. Year and a half?

If he had eyes right now he'd be bawling.

Allura and Coran have emerged from their pods now; Hunk meanders around the group, half-listening as he tries to get his feelings under control. The last thing he wants is to blow his cover by bursting into tears the moment he's back in his body. He looks over every single one of them, even Coran, though he's careful not to touch--they're all so...  _ whole. _ And real, and here...

Okay. Deep breaths, Hunk. Can't float around forever, there's work to do.

He steps in behind himself with a weird sort of deja vu. Allura is talking about Zarkon right now; her reactions so far have seemed pretty genuine, not like she's faking or knows what's going on--maybe she's holding back too? Or maybe she didn't--no. Not following that train of thought, nope. He made it, she had to have too. 

Man, it's really weird to see himself from behind. Not a flattering angle.

He steps forward, into his body. There's a sort of rush, and he shudders, and blinks.

Alright, solid again. It's kinda like waking up from a dream, though, because everything from the future is suddenly sorta faded and today's events crystal clear. Like he imagined all the future stuff, except he's totally sure he didn't. He doesn't feel like two people or anything, though, or really any different at all.

Well, he's feeling a lot of things, actually, but he's not sick or exploding out of his skin or something.

He blinks away a single tear, but that's okay, no one's looking.

He watches Allura closely, though, as she and Coran catch up on everything. So far she doesn't seem to have changed, and he's  _ pretty _ sure he knows her well enough to tell if she's acting, even if all the future stuff is a little hazy now. Ohh he really hopes she made it through; maybe she's still waiting for the right moment? 

When the alarm goes off--Sendak is on his way, he knows--she turns, and an odd sort of shudder passes through her body, just for a moment. Her eyes flick up and meet Hunk's, questioning.

He nods. She gives a slight nod in return, and gets to business.

* * *

It really figures that they pulled off the merging bit so well, Hunk decides. It figures because right now Lance is in a healing pod because Hunk got to his lion and got out of the caves too soon, and therefore wasn't in the right place at the right time to block the incoming missiles while Blue was disabled, so Yellow had to carry them both out of there, and the injuries weren't too severe, Lance just got banged up a bit, but now Hunk has to pretend to give himself up to Sendak  _ alone _ and ohh man he is  _ freaking out. _

At least Allura knowing what decision to make without consulting her father bought them a little time. Like, five minutes. But it's something?

Also, Lance is supposed to get out of the healing pod in an hour or less. They just have to... stall.

"Where is the blue lion?" Sendak asks. Ah, shoot.

"Oh, um, it got pretty mangled up and all," Hunk says quickly. "We didn't think you'd want it. It's down on Arus. I can, um, go get it for you?"

"We can retrieve it ourselves," Sendak says, and cuts the line. Ah,  _ shoot. _

Hunk waits until the imminent tractor beam's glow is shining into the cockpit before dodging away and going straight for the ion cannon. He only has a few seconds to take down its shield before the fighters launch.

"Clock's ticking!" he warns the team. Nice to have a team to warn again, anyway. He makes sure to  _ really _ mangle the ion cannon this time, just totally shreds it, to buy them more time. It's easier now that he knows what he's doing. Kinda.

"Let's see them try and fix  _ that _ ," he mutters, only to be assaulted with an alarm moments later. 

Oh right, the fighters. He'd barely realized he was taking damage while destroying the cannon. Lance distracted them last time, but he's not here right now.

"I really hope you guys are done in there, because I can't hold out much longer," Hunk calls.

"Almost!" Shiro responds immediately, bless him. "We're heading back to the green lion now. Keith?"

"I found it but it won't let me in," Keith puffs. There's a shout, and his comm cuts out.

"Keith!?"

"He's fine, he turned it off," Hunk says quickly. His display does say the comm was turned off; he's assuming the okay part. After all, Keith managed just fine last time.

He does his best to dodge and destroy the fighters--and his best isn't bad, after all this time, though he could swear his reaction times are suffering, guess muscle memory isn't included in his quintessence--to give the rest a window to escape. Yellow's taken damage but not enough to disable him, and he's used to fighting broken and alone anyway.

_ Don't think about that, _ he reminds himself. He opens a private channel to Allura.

"How's it going?" he asks.

"Could be better," she says flatly.

"I tried--"

"I know." She sighs. "We know what's coming, so we can still make this work. The shields are functional but I'm having Coran reroute more power so we can hold out longer."

"Have you told him yet?"

"Not yet."

"Well, I really messed up their cannon? It'll take them a lot longer to fix, if they can at all."

"That's good." She pauses. "Looks like the others are just about done. When this is over, we'll regroup, okay?"

"Yeah," he says, feeling a little relieved, and switches back to the public line.

"--pilot were here, this'd be easier," Pidge is saying drily.

"I'm sure he did his best," Shiro says diplomatically. Keith snorts.

"Are we all out, what's going on," says Hunk.

"We're here," says Shiro, and Red and Green enter his field of vision moments later.

"Who were you talking about?" Hunk asks. He's starting to feel a little queasy.

"Who do you think?" Keith asks sharply. Hunk's heart sinks.

"Look, I tried to get out in time to help him, but I was too far away. There was nothing I could do." He turns Yellow back toward Arus, and the others follow.

"It's not your fault Lance is a terrible pilot," Pidge says; she sounds kind of amused. 

"He did very well, considering!" Hunk says defensively. "I doubt you're a pro at this either!" Besides, it's completely his fault Lance got hurt. Last time he was able to save him.

"I didn't train for this, though," Pidge says, at the same time as Keith says, "Apparently  _ you _ are."

Okay, Keith, that's a little weird. "What?"

Keith makes a noncommittal noise. Pidge repeats herself.

"None of us did," Shiro interjects before Hunk can respond. "Lance had to fight off a colony's worth of fighters, without warning, while keeping them away from Hunk, in an alien ship. He's lucky he wasn't injured more."

"Thank you," Hunk says, though privately he disagrees, because he knows what  _ should _ have happened. Keith and Pidge don't deign to comment.

They all get back to the castle okay, anyway, and the fighters don't follow them into the atmosphere yet, and they retrieve the rescued prisoners without a hitch. Small blessings.

* * *

"Lance should be out in just a few ticks!" Coran announces when Hunk hurries into the infirmary. "Shouldn't you be out preparing for battle?"

"We can't do the Voltron thing without Lance anyway," Hunk says tiredly. He drops down onto the floor in front of Lance's pod to wait. "Just let me have this."

There's a long pause. Hunk watches Lance breathe, just to satisfy himself that he's alive.

"Have you heard of the Mobius Rite?" Coran asks tentatively, and Hunk finally looks up at him.

"Yeah. Did Allura mention it?"

"Briefly! She didn't say who may have... come with." Coran tugs nervously on his mustache. "It's difficult to ask about, you understand."

"Yeah. It was just me," Hunk says, turning back to Lance. "Besides Allura, I mean. We were the only ones left." He frowns. "Will be the only ones left? Except we're trying to prevent that from happening, so, not really. Hm."

Coran chuckles. "Ah, time travel. Messes with your tenses, doesn't it? I know what you mean, though." His tone softens. "I've never done it myself, but I know how it feels... to be the last ones left."

"Yeah," Hunk says heavily. "I know."

They fall silent again. Fortunately, it's not long before the healing pod hisses and slides open; Hunk jumps to his feet to help Lance out.

"Dude," Lance mumbles, clinging to him as he gets his feet back under him. "That was super weird."

"You'll get used to it," Hunk says. "I mean, I hope not! Just if we end up staying here a while, I mean, it'll probably happen," he adds quickly. 

Lance furrows his brow, but is evidently still too out of it to fully process Hunk's slip-up, because instead he looks around and says, "Where is everyone? What'd I miss?"

"Getting ready for battle!" Coran chirps, even as he gives Hunk a sideways look. Well, at least Coran already knows. "They retrieved the red lion while you were out but now the Galra are nearly on our doorstep!"

Lance's eyes widen. "They  _ what? _ Wait..."

"Yeah, we kinda have to go," Hunk says. "Do you think you're ready to fly again? We can buy you a little more time if you need it, probably."

"I can totally do it," Lance says, but it's kind of mumbled and seems like he's as much talking to himself as to Hunk. Then he looks up. "...What're you wearing?"

Hunk lets out a breath. "The uniform! C'mon, I'll show you." 

He exchanges a look with Coran as he leads Lance out of the room; Coran will probably be there when he and Allura regroup later. That's gonna be a hell of a conversation.

* * *

No sooner does Hunk lead a suited-up Lance back to the bridge than they're sent right back out to the lions again. Keith doesn't comment and Hunk can hear the smirk in Pidge's voice when she greets Lance with "Hey, Tailor," but Shiro at least sounds genuine in his greeting.

"Sorry to drag you back out here so soon, but Allura needs all of us for this," he says. "How are you feeling?"

"Fantastic," says Lance cheerily. "Let's kick their asses."

"That's the spirit!" Coran calls from behind Allura. Even over the video comm, she and Hunk exchange a look.

"Anyway," she says. "Sendak's ship is entering the atmosphere now. You'll need to form Voltron to take it down."

Things progress more or less as Hunk remembers from there; the Galra  _ did _ manage to fix the ion cannon (how!?) but in the end they form Voltron and the ship comes crashing down to Arus. It's afterwards, once Allura has charged them with defending the universe and dismissed them to rest, that things diverge again. For Hunk, at least, as he separates from the group as soon as he can and heads back up to the bridge.

"Good, you're here," Allura says the moment he enters. Coran, as predicted, is hovering around her. "We need to make plans."

"Sorry I messed up," Hunk says quickly, rubbing the back of his head. "I really thought I could get out in time..."

"It's fine. It turned out alright," she says. "Moving forward, though, we'll need to be careful."

Hunk nods, relieved. "It'd be great if we could prevent Sendak from taking over the castle this time."

Coran splutters. "He did  _ what? _ "

Allura just nods. "Yes, but I fear that without that battle Pidge will leave us for good. It seemed to me that it was what convinced her to stay, last time."

"...Shoot. Maybe we can at least prevent him from replacing the crystal? If the ship doesn't get infected, you won't have to lose your dad."

Allura's lips thin to a line. "Yes, but in return we'll lose two--three, even--of the most crucial bonding moments between Lance and Keith. They'll give us enough trouble as is; if their relationship stays sour--"

"Allura, your  _ father! _ Besides, what's the other one? All I can think of is one Keith got upset about, and the airlock incident."

"Rescuing the Balmera. If we don't need a new crystal, we'll have no reason to go--and you won't get to meet Shay, either."

Hunk takes a deep breath. "We  _ can _ still save the Balmera. We'll need their help later once we meet the Blade of Marmora, so it'll happen eventually anyway. And I'm pretty sure we can find other ways to make Lance and Keith get along without risking their lives." He pauses when Allura looks away. "It's okay to do something for yourself, Allura. You don't  _ have _ to give up your father. I know you got on fine without him but this is why we came back, isn't it? To make things better?"

She lets out a tense sigh. "I don't want to diverge too much from what worked last time," she says.

"It  _ didn't _ work last time," Hunk says gently (and huh, he can do that again. Be gentle). "That's why we're here. Just because things happened one way doesn't mean there aren't other ways."

"I'm afraid you two have completely lost me," Coran interjects, also gentle. "But I believe I agree with Hunk, Princess. Surely we ought to avoid as much death and misery as possible?"

"Besides, for Pidge, if worst comes to worst we can just tell her we time traveled and she'll get the chance to rescue Matt if she sticks around." Hunk shrugs. "I'm like 95% sure we can get her to believe us. If she doesn't, we know where Matt  _ is, now, _ or at least how to find him. It'd be hard to explain to the others but you could probably just call it space magic or something, they won't know any better."

Allura is quiet for a moment, frowning. Then she sighs. 

"Okay," she says. "We should still have a training session tomorrow; Haggar will be sending a robeast shortly and we'll need Voltron. I can send Pidge and Shiro out to gather data from the wreck the next morning before it arrives, assuming we even need it."

"Well, we don't, I don't think. It just gave her a lead on Matt's location and we already know that. Though I guess if we want to get Matt early we can use it... She might have used it for her algorithm too, though, the one that found us sites to attack? Or to find that base where they were refining quintessence? I don't remember. Speaking of, please don't get captured this time." Hunk frowns as Coran makes an indignant noise. "But we also used Sendak's memories for that. I wonder if we can still capture him without the whole invasion thing..."

"I won't get caught this time," Allura promises.

"I should  _ hope _ not," says Coran.

"Anyway, if you're so worried about Lance and Keith," Hunk continues, "I bet you or Coran can come up with some fake mission or something for them. A secret bonding exercise."  _ Sorry, Lance, _ he adds mentally.

Allura smiles. "We  _ do _ need to run diagnostics on some of the training room's functions, I'm sure."

Coran puffs out his chest and tugs on his mustache. "Leave it to me! I'll put 'em through their paces."

She huffs a bit of a laugh at that, but it fades away quickly. "We won't be able to change everything, you know," she says. "Assuming we can still arrange to meet with the Blade of Marmora, I don't predict we'll be changing much about their plan."

"No, probably not," Hunk agrees easily. 

"So we'll have to figure out why Shiro disappeared last time, before it happens again," she adds, and Hunk's heart sinks. 

"Uh, how? We had like a year and a half last time and we never found out what happened."

"I know. But we have no choice." She turns away to look out the windows at Arus's darkening skies. "The key may lie with Shiro himself. I need you to get close to him, Hunk, while you still can. If it was triggered by something in his past, something the druids did to him, we need to know."

"He doesn't remember anything, though," Hunk says nervously. Shiro is without a doubt the paladin he knows the least about; even if he hadn't been the first loss in the future, he technically only just met him today. He knows enough, though, to be seriously uncomfortable at the thought of dredging up past traumas.

"I know," Allura says again. "But he will have to, despite the risk. In the meantime, perhaps you can suggest he start grooming Keith as his successor--if, what was the phrase? Worst comes to worst? Then perhaps we can keep him out of the battle entirely."

"I can do that," says Hunk with a little more confidence. "But who'll fly Red? We'll need you in here, and we won't have time between Pidge getting the info on Matt and carrying out the plan to go get him."

"We may have to cheat and get him early, then," she says wryly, lips quirked. "But that's only a back up plan, remember. First, let's try to figure out what happened."

"Alright," Hunk says doubtfully. "I'll try."

"Good. Go rest, Hunk," she says, voice soft. "We have a long road ahead of us."

"You too, Allura." He starts off the bridge, but turns in the doorway. "Oh, by the way, don't expect me up and ready for battle when you set off the alarms in the morning. It'd be suspicious." He winks. She rolls her eyes.

"Noted," she says, and he leaves.

* * *

Training the next day is just as much of a crapshoot as it was the first time (though Hunk  _ rocks _ the nosedive drill, thank you very much). It can't really be helped. This is new to everyone but him.

The food goo fight is the most fun he's had in a long time, though, and from the look on Allura's face as they file out to form Voltron, it's the same for her. So that's something.

The next morning, as promised, Allura suggests they search the wreckage of Sendak's ship before group training; Pidge and Shiro go, and Coran press gangs Lance and Keith into helping him on the training deck. Which leaves Hunk and Allura on the bridge, trying to get the rest of the systems back online before the inevitable attack.

"Do you have a plan yet?" Hunk asks as he works. "For Sendak, I mean."

"Hm. I was thinking we ought to set a trap," Allura says, straightening up to stretch before bending back down to her task. "If we can keep the crystal from actually being destroyed, then we can power down to make him  _ think _ it has and lure him in--and then capture him with everyone present."

"I wasn't there for that part last time, you know," Hunk reminds her. "I was on the Balmera with Coran. I mean, I heard about it after, obviously, but I don't remember it very well?"

"You don't need to. It won't happen that way again." She stands up and wipes her hands on a rag, and leans against the control panel as Hunk leans back from the panel he's working on. "I've already warned Coran exactly what to look for. If you have the chance, perhaps warn Lance about the bomb as well--subtly, if possible."

"Yeah." Hunk grimaces. "I don't want him to get hurt again."

"Nor do I."

They're quiet for a moment; then Allura returns to her work, and Hunk to his. He's distracted later during training, but he's definitely not the only one; the prisoners they freed could come out of cryo at any minute and Pidge's computers are working on translating the data from Sendak's ship. Lance and Keith, at least, come to training focused and even cheerful--evidently at Coran's expense, by the man's pout when they'd all convened beforehand--but it doesn't last very long.

Spirits are pretty low when they return to the castle. Pidge and Shiro immediately leave for cryo before Coran can even try to subject them to his paladin lunch; Lance tosses a half-hearted insult at Keith, who only grunts in response, and both slump into chairs at the table and ignore Coran entirely. Allura comes down to survey the scene and exchanges a look with Hunk, but they can't talk freely here.

The little Arusian warrior shows up before Hunk can even go make them a lunch that's actually edible, which is just the cherry on top, really.

At least, Hunk thinks so, until the robeast crashes down after they've met the Arusians but before they get to party with them.  _ That's _ the cherry on top of this... really discouraging sundae. Defeating it helps, though.

Also finally eating lunch, though by that point it's almost dinner.

By the time the Arusians come up to the castle for the goodbye party, Hunk is tense, but ready. He's gonna change the timeline and make sure everything goes to plan. Sendak better watch out 'cause Hunk's on the prowl. Nothing's gonna get by  _ him. _

And then he turns from his conversation with Lance and Keith and realizes Shiro's walking out the front door and ah, shoot, it's time. Keith has gotten distracted while Hunk was looking away. He's pretty sure he said something at this point that made Lance go off on his own. Something about food? Nachos?

"Do you think we'll ever land on a nacho planet?" he asks, grabbing something presumably edible off a floating tray. Nailed it.

And then Lance starts talking. Oh right, he went off on his own because he got homesick, nice going, Hunk. 

"Wait," Hunk says quickly, grabbing Lance's arm as he turns to go and ignoring that he's on the verge of tears. "If you see Rover but Pidge isn't there, shoot it down. It's not Rover." So much for subtlety. Hunk decides he should've planned more ahead of time because he's  _ no _ good under pressure.

"Uh?" Now Lance looks confused. 

"Just, trust me," Hunk says, and lets go. Lance gives him one last look, but he heads off; Coran follows shortly. Okay! Now he just has to keep watch for the drone himself, and maybe he can intercept it before it even gets to the bridge. Allura is arguing with Pidge across the room, or rather, was; now Pidge is heading out toward the front doors and Shiro.

"Hunk?"

He turns; Keith is there, looking at him. Keith, who has no idea what's about to happen. He's still here. Right.

"Hey?" Hunk says.

"Can we..." Keith pauses, frowns. "Taaa--aalk?" The word is weirdly stretched out, like he changed his mind about it halfway but decided it was too late to stop. Hunk raises an eyebrow.

"We... are? We're talking right now, buddy."

"Yeah, I just... You know?" Keith waves an arm vaguely. His face is all screwed up, somewhere between desperate and confused. Hunk is pretty confused too, frankly.

"No? I don't know...?"

"Okay, but... can we?"

"...Can we what?"

"Talk."

"Again: we  _ are _ talking." Hunk frowns and leans in, looking closely at Keith. He's visibly sweating and not meeting his eye. "What do you want, Keith? It's okay, just tell me."

"I don't know!" Keith blurts suddenly, throwing his hands up. He sounds pretty fed up with himself. "I don't know!"

"...Are you okay?" Hunk is getting seriously concerned here. This conversation definitely didn't happen last time--could something he'd done differently have changed things? Maybe Keith overheard his warning to Lance?

Speaking of, he's supposed to be watching for the drone. He glances away as Keith fidgets and doesn't answer--which, again, highly concerning.

Aaaand there's the drone, slipping away down the hall towards the bridge. Dammit.

"Uh, excuse me," Hunk says quickly, moving to follow, only to be kept back by a hand on his arm.

"You can't go!" Keith says urgently. Hunk opens his mouth. "I don't know why," Keith adds before he can speak, answering his question before he can ask it, and he shuts his mouth, "but you can't go."

"Keith," Hunk says as gently as he can despite the urgency of the situation. "I can't explain right now but this is really important." It's been like two days and he's already showing all his cards, ugh.

"It's really important that you don't--look, do you... does your lion, y'know, talk to you?" Keith blurts. Hunk blinks in surprise.

"Yeah?"

And Keith just  _ sags, _ shoulders slumping in visible relief. "Well mine says you shouldn't go. It's... really important."

Hunk glances over at the hallway. The drone's already out of sight, but he can probably still catch it if he runs. How does the red lion know what's going on, anyway? Allura might have told her, she has the potential to be her paladin, but evidently she doesn't know that Hunk knows, too.

"Tell her I'll be fine. I know what I'm doing," Hunk says, and takes off before Keith can respond, weaving through the crowd of Arusians.

"Keith! Hunk!" Shiro calls behind him, but he pretends he didn't hear and slips off into the hallway.

He gets  _ most _ of the way to the bridge before there's a rumble and a boom that shakes the castle. The lights flicker but stay on for another moment before going out and oh  _ man _ he really hopes that was Allura turning them off like they planned and not the crystal being destroyed like last time.

He all but skids onto the bridge. Crystal: intact, but cracked. Lance and Coran: on the floor, but both are sitting up, looking a little singed but none the worse for wear. Okay! Not as good as they'd hoped, but better than expected. He jams on his helmet.

"Allura? Allura, can you hear me?" he says. Lance gets up with a groan and goes to check on Coran.

"Yes, Hunk!" Allura's voice comes through his helmet. "Status?"

"Lance and Coran are fine. The crystal is cracked but it doesn't look too bad."

"Good. Fill them in as best you can; we're evacuating the rest of the Arusians now."

"Roger that." He keeps his helmet on but mutes it for the time being as he goes to help Lance help Coran up. The man looks shaken but uninjured.

"It wasn't Rover," Lance says. He's blinking, a little unfocused. Okay, maybe he's not so okay, but a concussion isn't the worst that could happen. "How'd you know?"

"Uh, lucky guess." Hunk lifts one of Coran's arms over his shoulder, and tugs an unsteady Lance across to his other side where he can keep a firm grip on his arm. "Allura and I were talking earlier today, and we thought Sendak might've survived? So we made, y'know, contingency plans. Just in case."

"Huh." Lance nods slowly. "Sure, okay. Smart."

"Yeah, buddy."

"I think he may have bumped his noggin in the explosion, Hunk," Coran says quietly, belatedly. Lance starts humming something.

"Yeah, probably. Do the healing pods fix concussions?"

"Yes, but the power seems to be out..."

"Allura turned it off. We're trying to lure Sendak in so we can capture him. Are you hurt?"

"A bit shook up, but I'll be just fine in a tick!" Coran says. Then his voice lowers. "You know what you're doing, I assume?"

"Yeah, we've got it under control." Hunk shoots a glance over at Lance, who's still humming, ignoring them. "I hope. We're already doing better than, y'know..."

"Right, right." Coran frees himself from Hunk's grip. "I'll go on ahead, hm? I assume Allura's in the ballroom?"

"Probably," Hunk says, and Coran jogs off. For a minute, Hunk and Lance walk in silence.

"This paladin thing is kinda a drag, isn't it?" Lance says suddenly. "How come I'm the only one getting hurt?"

"You're a little reckless, Lance," Hunk says affectionately. "We'll all have our turns, though."

"I'm not!"

"Okay, you're not. But you like to protect people." He doesn't know if Lance pushed Coran out of the way of the bomb in  _ this _ timeline, but it wouldn't surprise him. "So you're gonna take some hits, right?"

Lance pauses. "Is that bad?"

"Nah, but I'd like you to  _ maybe  _ be a little more careful? I don't like seeing you get hurt, dude."

"Aww, you care."

"Uh, yeah. Best bros, right?"

"Totally." They fist bump--Lance misses the first time but manages the second. They finally reach the ballroom soon after. 

"Lance! How are you feeling?" Allura calls, hurrying over to them as they enter. 

He grins. "Better now you're here, princess."

She snorts. "Right. I need you upstairs with your bayard ready. Shoot any galra you see."

"I'm... not sure that's a good idea," says Hunk. "I mean, his hand-eye coordination is not great right now."

"I'm  _ fine, _ I'm only  _ mildly _ concussed," Lance protests.

"A concussion's a concussion, buddy."

"S'not my first rodeo," he insists, shaking off Hunk's steadying hand. "I can do it." He turns steadily enough towards the stairs, and starts up them, keeping a hand on the railing. Hunk watches him for a moment just to be sure, and turns back to Allura.

"I sent Keith down to help the Arusians," she says. "He should come back in time to help us. I want you to focus on taking down the drones; Shiro, Pidge, and I will handle Sendak." She turns before he can respond. "Everyone, get in position!"

"Right," Shiro says nearby, and he and Pidge duck away to one side, out of sight of the entrance. Allura pulls Hunk across to the other side, gesturing vigorously for Lance to crouch down out of sight too, which he does.

"Now we wait," she whispers. Hunk is burning with questions--particularly what she's said to Pidge, if anything--but the castle is eerily silent without the usual hum of the systems and he's not sure he won't be overheard. Besides, he has to focus.

They don't have to wait long before the clank of metal and heavy footsteps approach.

"Look at this, Haxus." Sendak's pleased voice echoes down the entryway. "Wide open and ready for the taking." 

**Author's Note:**

> so. yep.
> 
> i still have the outline for this SOMEWHERE. all i remember was that future!keith disappeared bc he switched sides (I DONT REMEMBER WHY??), then followed them back somehow, and he didnt merge with current!keith but is like whispering shit in his ear the whole time, hence keiths weirdness
> 
> it was going to maybe be shunk, or heith, or... something? i dont think i ever considered hallura which was dumb of me bc hallura is good. and i think it was gonna be keiths fault lance died (but idk if it was on purpose bc hed jumped ship, or not)? I DUNNO IT WAS A WHOLE THING I HAD A LOT FOR THIS STORY


End file.
